146 THE UNIQUENESS OF LIFE 



because it has an entelechy, we are embarking on a new 

 adventure — that of a positive vitalistic theory. 



(c) It is held by some that it is the presence of con- 

 sciousness or some expression of mentality, that makes all 

 the difference, and here again there is probably a gi^eat truth 

 — to which we point in using the term Animate Nature. 

 But the suggestion as it stands cannot be pressed in the 

 meantime, for the obvious reason that there are many living 

 creatures about whose mind or consciousness we cannot make 

 any secure statement, where even the argument from analogy 

 fails us. So it must be clearly understood that the problem 

 of vitalism is different from that of animism. The problem 

 of vitalism would remain even if the world held only plants 

 and no animals besides ourselves — Jack and his beanstalk, in 

 fact. Now whatever we may believe, we do not know any- 

 thing about the mind of the beanstalk. Yet we may, and 

 do maintain that mechanistic formulae do not suffice to an- 

 swer our biological questions concerning the beanstalk. 



Among those who hold that plants and animals stand 

 apart from things in general, we may distinguish three 

 grades. (I) The first view is that the configurations that 

 occur in organisms are so different from those in the inorganic 

 domain that the activities of organisms cannot be predicted 

 from any formulation of what occurs in inorganic systems. 

 This is the very thin edge of vitalism. (II) The second 

 view is that there operates in living creatures a new kind 

 of physical energy which does not operate elsewhere. This 

 is a lineal descendant of the mediaeval form of vitalism — the 

 doctrine of a vital force. (Ill) There is the theory of a non- 

 perceptual vital agency or entelechy which operates direc- 

 tively in organisms. This is the clearest and the most thor- 

 oughgoing form of vitalism. 



